From Streams to Rivers Part Four

A day had passed ever since Fell's breakthrough had happened, no major change seemed to have happened to his life. Wind had been healed with one of the few pills he had left, thankfully he had never needed them as his body had always been good at recovering from injuries. The young official seemed to have forgotten the event of Fell's breakthrough and didn't question his senior brother about that day's event. Yet a change had happened in Wind's psyche as he never questioned his brother's directive again; his progress when it comes to breathing technique was astonishing as he went his own way to do some research on the subject.

The Four Noble families stood silent during the day that followed, and Fell's life in the main district was resumed to the pace he had been following before. But he was aware that the baptism of law was still going on inside of his Dantian. A seed had taken birth in his Energy Core, and he didn't know how long it would take for him to germinate. Little Gold had stayed silent ever since the past event and seemed to have turned into Fell's internal energy storage. He knew that he had been too rough on the little creature as it had been ignoring him for the past few days; he didn't pay too much attention to it as the link between them was still there.

Days quietly passed and the past event where thrown in the back of Fell's mind, he resumed his experiences on the blood essence while helping Wind in his foundational training. The young official kept breaking his records and the training floor's facilities showed their values in the following session. Fell began pushing Wind to his limit; changing the room's temperature to turn it into a fiery hell or the opposite with chilling cold. He even began changing the pressure of the room while dabbling with the moisture, making Wind completely unable to sweat. Yet the young official didn't seem to be bothered by hardship and kept training every day in the hellish atmosphere. Aided with Fell's pure internal energy, he didn't fear death at all and gave his all in every training session.

"Blood Essence changes every time the individual faces a near-death experience…", he thought while analyzing the data the War Assist AI gave him. "His training's pace is already fast, although I need the data to progress with my studies in Blood Essence… I can't speed up the training more as Wind's mind will break down", he knew that although the young official had a strong will, every individual had a breaking point. Wind might think that Fell was pushing him to his limits in every training session and that could be shown by his after-training state. Only Fell knew that everything was calculated to put Wind in the best situation for a breakthrough. If he went a little bit easier, no result would be shown. Yet if he went too harsh on him, he would end up with a dead friend.

Days passed as Wind got used to his habit, and his body went through a complete change. Every day before going to the training, he would spend minutes of admiration in front of the bathroom's mirror causing Fell to slap him several times after the young official's constant nagging.

"Hey Bro, didn't I get super ripped?"

"Look at those abs!"

"I think my genetics aren't that bad!"

Those type of comment annoyed Fell beyond frustration, thankfully he would take pleasure in beating the crap out of Wind every time the young official would go too far in his eccentricity. Yet it was as if Wind was asking for more beating as his donkey memory made him forget the beatings overnight. Fell didn't know whether to laugh or cry as Wind hadn't even begun his strength training, thus from an evolution standpoint, his body was far from having changed. That being said, in reality, Wind's body had experienced massive changes in a short period of time. His breathing had turned deep and calm, and he now could run the one hundred laps at default setting with no problem. Although Fell didn't want him to turn complacent or narcissistic, he couldn't help but agree that Wind's body had definitely toned down. Far from the weak and frail official body he had before, yet he was still in the realm of mortality as Fell didn't have enough resources to help him temper his body. That being said, Wind was, in the end, a cultivator that cultivated in the soul way, and Fell didn't know if straying from the initial goal was a good idea.

Today was a special day, as Wind would finally stop his endurance training to begin his focus on building up strength. As usual, they left the apartment after filling their stomachs with a nutritious meal. Wind and Fell quietly walked toward the training facility, their figures passed through the spotless streets of New Casablanca's main district. Minutes later, their frames appeared in front of the place they had hung around the last weeks. The training facilities were called Golden Factories and were obviously owned by the renowned Golden Family. Fell never really paid attention to this matter and had even broken through in the middle of their building, causing quite the large-scale phenomenon to appear in the middle of the street. Thankfully the facilities didn't seem to get any directive to blacklist Fell from their business, giving him the opportunity to continue his research with Wind.

Both youngsters entered through the large door frame and appeared inside the first floor's large hall. To their left was the usual receptionist, a twenty-something year old charming woman that was always focused on the screen in front of her. She only rarely raised her head, once in a while, to check the customers' needs or to verify their identification cards.